The war created special problems for women whose husbands had gone off to fight. Army pay was low. It also wasn’t steady. So these women had to support their families.
They also had to protect themselves and their children from enemy soldiers. Farm women had to learn how to do the men’s work of planting and harvesting. But they still had to run their households. They had to feed their families. Plus, they had to grow enough food to supply the army. Nonfarming women sometimes took over their husbands’ businesses. Some did well at that. Others had to sell the businesses because they weren’t trained to run them.
